Salestuners: B2b Sales Training And Coaching From Prospecting To Negotiation And Closing

Takeaways Nice Guys Finish First: Kyle believes there’s a misconception out there that salespeople who are selfish are the ones who win the most business. He says It’s the other way around. When you sell with service on your mind (and heart), you will succeed. The best salespeople are the ones who care so much they’re willing to go out on the edge and work hard to make sure their organization accomplishes the thing or solves the problem it aims to solve. What that means starts with doing research beforehand and digging into the needs of the prospect, but it goes deeper than that. Be honest. Be upfront with them. Solve their problem, whatever it may be. Practice Sincerity: If you’re not sincere about it, your job is over before it even starts. Instead, find ways to eliminate tasks that don’t require sincerity. Converting accounts is a process that requires empathy. That means finding not only the right people to call, but taking it a step farther and having meaningful conversations about how you can make the

Takeaways Make Planned Calls, Not Random Calls: For many people it doesn’t take long to realize that quality over quantity matters. For example, sometimes it’s not about how many calls you make. It’s about making planned calls that target specific prospects. Instead of working your way through a list and starting over at the beginning, make calls to the same two or three prospects in the same account on the same day. It’s Hard to Say No to Someone Personally: Face to face communication is huge and while you may not be able to personally meet all of your prospects at conferences, you can introduce yourself by video. It’s friendly and personal and offers you a different way to open up conversations. It’s really hard to say no to somebody when you see their face and they are more humanized. Ditch the Buzzwords and Generalities: Quit trying to make everything scale. Paul Graham wrote a great blog post all about intentionally doing things that don’t scale. When you try to stuff a script with all the features and

Takeaways Stop Trying to Wing It: Just because salespeople fall under the category of “influencers” doesn’t mean they’ve earned the right to wing it. Buyers will let you own the process if you’re willing to. Meaning if you have a structured process, if you’re working someone through a pain funnel and articulating your next step, your audience will typically let you work. It’s when you try to just ‘wing it,’ that the system breaks down and you ultimately lose control over the sales process. Know Your Weaknesses: Scott mentioned there being five major weaknesses that every salesperson has in some capacity. Need for approval, fear of rejection, low money tolerance, non-supported buy cycle and record collection. Knowing where you sit in each of these allows you to seek the coaching or mentorship needed for growth. Understand Your Identity vs Your Role: All of us have a unique identity comprised of our beliefs, values, principles, desires and emotions. We also have a plethora of roles that we play such as son or

Takeaways Figure Out a Growth Trajectory: One of the first challenges I see a lot of salespeople struggle with is their quota or actual goal. Regardless of what the number is, going from zero to that number can seem daunting. Instead of focusing on the end, find the unit of growth that makes your sales process work and then do the backwards math to develop your daily game plan. You’ll find this activity to be a lot more manageable. Quit Being Afraid of Cold Calls: It’s so much easier to send out a quick batch of emails, but the simple (and harsh) truth is cold calling works. A personal conversation is more memorable, not to mention more open-ended, than the 100th email you prospect receives in a given day. First thing first, you can’t sound like every other salesperson on the planet. Instead of trying to get them to say yes, be skeptical and determine if they even have the problems your product or service can help. Second, create equal business stature -- tell them you’re only going to take 30 seconds of th

Takeaways Nurture Wins: Nurture campaigns are an investment, but they can pay huge dividends in the long-term. In general, no one will ever buy less because you care more. Finding ways to engage with prospects at another level than simply making a phone call or sending an email makes a significant difference these days. What can you send a prospect to differentiate yourself and show them you really care? Push Your Tone to the Limit: On a scale of one to ten, with one being beloved Fred Rogers and ten being brutally honest Joan Rivers, where do you fall? Being nice is nice and all, but sometimes it helps to step outside your comfort zone. Understanding where you fall on this tonal scale is important, but more important is finding the line of where your prospects sit. What can you say to move them to the edge of emotion and stand out in their inbox? If you upset some people along the way, so be it. It doesn’t make sense to dwell on the one or two people you may have shocked when you see the increased pipeline

Takeaways Everybody is in Sales: Personality can only take you so far. Introvert or extrovert doesn’t matter and doesn’t define you as a sales person. What does is how you sell. No matter what you end up doing, you are in sales. Whether that means selling your ideas to your boss, selling co-workers on a new approach to a problem, or directly selling a service to a customer -- everything starts with sales. Break the Silence: I’ve been in a enough sales rooms to tell you the silence is absolutely deafening today. On one end, you’ve got a whole bunch of brand new salespeople with no business acumen and hole bunch of “tools” in their hands they have to try to figure out. On the other end you’ve got more experienced reps going into conference rooms to “make their calls.” All of this has got to stop. Let’s work together, out loud, to move the needle. Go For No: It’s one thing to know you’re going to hear “no” a lot. It’s something else entirely how you approach it. Instead of making a goal to set five appointment

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/keenan/ Takeaways It’s Not About Learning: It’s about applying what you love and who you are to what you do. While you need to understand your product, It’s more important to know how to sell than it is to know all the technical features and benefits of your offering. Comparing sales to fitness… you can educate yourself all you want about what it takes to get a perfect six pack, but none of that matters until you start applying that knowledge. Application and execution are the most important part of the puzzle. Be You: It’s okay to be inspired by successful salespeople, that likely why so many people listen to this show, but at the end of the day, you have be you. Everyone is different and what works for one person might not have the same impact on someone else. Whatever gives you energy, whatever makes you passionate, whatever gets you going in the morning - use that to build the YOU that you want to be. You have the power to make the choices that will empower you in

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/matt-millen/ Takeaways You Get What You Give: The quality of what you put into a sale is the quality of what you get back. Success is in itself a habit and there are rituals that go into creating success. The numbers play a role and the tools available are important, but ultimately it’s what you put into a sale that matters. It’s who you are, what you have to offer and how you offer it that closes a sale. Believe in Something: It’s different for everyone, but one tried and true belief system focuses on the importance of having a story, being active and having a positive mindset. Great sales reps live and breathe their business. They tell a story with a passion, conviction and soul. They are active in conversations and they believe in their heart that their product, that their business, is going to help whoever they are selling to. Learn From What Works: Trusting the process matters. If there’s a process, run the process. Learn the script. Don’t reinvent the wheel unnec

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/mary-browning/ Takeaways It All Starts With Data (But It Doesn’t End There): Data is the list of people you’re going to call and the industry or demographics of companies you’re looking at. Taking those numbers to the next level focuses on the people behind the numbers. What are their common needs? How can you help meet them? When you consider the current marketplace, and the ins and outs of each organization, part of being a successful salesperson is understanding and meeting clients where they are at. Make Your Message Matter: It isn’t just about the numbers. What is the customer’s pain? You need to make it your job to find out, and quick! One of the biggest challenges in prospecting is that you generally have 30 seconds or less to uncover someone’s pain. That’s why it is so important to develop succinct ways to communicate a solution to that pain. Make it count. Consider Your Cadence: Most importantly, how a message is delivered should be diverse. It needs to be com

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/bob-perkins/ Takeaways Be Selfish In a Good Way: Top sales reps are usually at the top for a reason. They’re driven, focused and selfish - in a good way. They’re also not that concerned with the welfare of those around them. They need that time and space to focus on their accounts, run their sales process the way they know works, are dedicated to improving themselves all along the way. Embrace the Digital Transformation: The role technology plays in sales isn’t going away. You can easily schedule meetings with apps like Calendly or completely automate it with services like X.ai. You can streamline the workflow for creating proposals with apps like our sponsor Octiv or simplify your outbound prospecting with tools like SalesLoft. There’s even a new product I recently demoed that brings better transparency and consistency to the discovery call process called Costello that you should check out. Keep Sales Personal: Time to contradict myself a bit. Even though I believe we

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/damian-thompson/ Takeaways All Interest Is Self Interest: Knowing your prospects is a good place to start, but often it helps to dig deeper. It helps to understand what motivates people and what makes them tick. It helps to remember that all interest is self interest. What does that mean for you? People buy emotionally and then rationalize their purchase intellectually after the fact. You have to get them excited or upset about something to truly move them. Question Everything: As soon as something becomes an accepted and widely used “best practice,” chances are its shelf life has already expired. For example, all the cute subject lines or cold email template you find, were awesome the first five times a prospect saw them. What are you doing today? What are you testing right now? Even if everything is going great and you’re beating quota, what should you be questioning to see if you could get even better? Niche Down Until it Hurts: It’s NOT possible to serve too small

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/joe-caprio/ Takeaways Play By The Numbers: Ask not what the numbers can do for you but what you can do with your numbers. If you have tools available for tracking, do more than use them. Make them work for you by analyzing what they mean for your business. You know what you do every day so don’t just accept it and move on. Keep track of it and use the data to improve your process. Work Harder AND Smarter: Instead of debating whether to work harder or smarter, do both. There are those who will say there is no substitute for hard work, efficiency and high conversion rates. But why not work smarter as well? Once you’ve learned how to be efficient, don’t stop there. Instead, be smart. Put your knowledge and experience to work for you by doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t work. Stay on your toes by mixing it up regularly, and whatever you do don’t stop growing. Treat Prospects Like Your Aunt or Uncle: Doing so creates a built in level of respect. You’re not g

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/kai-yu-hsiung/ Takeaways Be Unconventional: If something isn’t working, consider your options. Instead of trying the same thing again, get creative and find a way to approach the situation differently. How else could you work the sale? In what other venue? Would a conversational tweet open the door? What about a cocktail party to help break the ice? Thinking about different ways to sell your product is one of the best ways to react to the inevitable “no” situations you will encounter. Think Like an Entrepreneur: Whether you’re working for a big company or a startup, a sales career is your own business to run. You may have certain constraints or expectations placed on you by your employer, but you don't have constraints put on you in terms of how you approach the situation. As you learn the art of the rejection, should be able to firmly own and manage your career trajectory. No (Sales)Person is an Island: No matter how it might feel at any given moment, you’re not in th

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/marylou-tyler/ Takeaways Know When to Walk Away: Most of us are eternally hopeful, but it’s often more prudent to be realistic. If you have a strong pipeline, work it. Don’t be afraid to push back, but also recognize when something isn’t working. If it’s not a good fit, the square peg will not fit into a round hole over time. Have a set list or set of criteria you look for in initial meetings, and if the client doesn’t fit, move on. While everybody may be a prospect, not everyone is a good prospect. Recognize the difference as early as you can. Trade Discipline for Habit: Think of prospecting like you would brushing your teeth. It’s different than being disciplined, it’s habit. It’s something you do every day without thinking. There’s a good reason people lose weight, then gain it and lose it and gain it again. They can have all the discipline in the world, but if working out and making healthy choices is not a habit for them, the discipline is for naught. Incorporate

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/steve-richard/ Takeaways Failure Is Part of the Process: No one remembers the deals they win; they remember the deals they lost. There is a psychological reason for this that is rooted in the scientific makeup of the mind. When emotions are extremely high or there is a high level of anxiety, our brains are essentially programed to make us remember those moments. Instead of letting those moments haunt you, turn them into opportunity. Once you accept that mistakes happen and move on, it’s easier to choose to learn something from almost any sticky situation. You Determine How Successful You Become: It is much more common to fail at the start than it is to become the next overnight success story. What you do with that knowledge determines the path you will take. It’s up to you to decide. You own your own development. If you fail, own it because if you don’t fail, you’re never going to learn. Focus on One Thing at a Time: Make time to review calls either on your own or as a

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/raquel-richardson/ Takeaways Remember It’s Not About You: Hearing “no” in sales is a given, but that doesn’t make it any less trying. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding how exactly you are shot down, there is no more important personality strength than the ability to bounce back. Sales is so much easier when you can remove yourself from the process and remember one simple truth: it’s not about you. It’s not a personal attack. You are doing your job, and it might be challenging right at this moment, but “no” is not the end of the line for you unless you let it be. Document and Share What Works: Raquel brought up her concept of a “WinWire,” but what could you do for the closed won or even the closed lost deals at your company. Before a “case study” is even relevant, how could you capture the details of why a customer bought from you? What was the business situation? What were they struggling with? Were they replacing anything? Did they pick you over another solu

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/morgan-j-ingram/ Takeaways Think Big Even If You Start Small: Anyone who’s either lived it before or is living it now knows the truth about being a sales development representative: it’s tough. SDRs are pushed hard, work long hours and go into work every single day knowing they’re going to get rejected over and over again. But, if you can master the art of opening up new opportunities, your career will open up in ways you may never have imagined. The mental toughness of those who persevere, those who thrive, those who live to tell the tale are prepared for anything. Understand Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy: Prospecting is simple, but it’s not easy. The tasks of calling, emailing, and connecting on social media are simple enough on their own. But the actual work and grind of it all is tough. It requires endurance. It means not taking no for an answer. Pushing back when you meet resistance is hard, but you should never be afraid to challenge a person. Dig a little deeper, ask

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/jonathan-parrott/ Takeaways Focus on Discovery: It’s not in the end zone that sales are lost, but rather at the start of the game. Your goal as a salesperson at the simplest level is to connect what you have with what a person is trying to accomplish. A lot of that starts early in the relationship as you seek to discover what it is that is driving that person. What is it they want to do? How can you help them do it? Learning as much as possible about a potential client on the front end pays dividends as you work toward closing the sale. Engage Where Your Prospect Is: E-mail has its place, but anyone who has ever accidentally hit “reply all” or inaccurately interpreted someone’s written tone can testify. E-mail is not the most conducive setting for building a strong, lasting relationship with someone. Since sales is rooted in working with humans, finding ways to engage with prospects is often more successful using other methods than e-mail. Whether that means picking up

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/jeb-blount/ Takeaways Protect the Golden Hours: Setting a structure in place for making sales calls has the potential to make or break your business. Make time for what matters, by including blocks of time to make sales calls on your calendar, preferably during the golden hours. Use voicemail blocks to call late in the day when you know you’re not going to reach most people. Plant a seed by leaving a voicemail, but then follow up in an outbound call block the following day. That way, the number is recognized or the call is returned. The same method can be utilized with e-mail as well. It may only take 15 minutes to accomplish something amazingly powerful. Remember the 30-Day Rule: The 30-day rule is a simple formula that comes into play regularly for most B2B salespeople. Generally speaking, any prospecting you do in a 30-day period of time has the tendency to pay off over the next 90 days. Yet this is where the anatomy of a sales slump lays its foundation. This is whe

Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/25-sales-leaders/ Top Book Recommendations The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg Sponsor Octiv – Transform the way your sales assets are created, distributed and tracked around the world. Because a better sales process is a better buying experience. Subscribe to SalesTuners